President Barack Obama and other national leaders tried Wednesday to put aside partisan differences and commemorate victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but tensions over Syria, Libya and other hotspots reminded Americans how that day sparked a new and troubled era that is still playing out in...

Even as Congress took a step Wednesday toward authorizing the use of force in Syria, a growing number of lawmakers spoke out strongly against a U.S. military strike and warned that it would draw the United States into an escalating conflict that could spread throughout the Middle East.

Senators from both parties pressed President Barack Obama’s top Cabinet officers Tuesday to provide guarantees that no U.S. troops would be sent to Syria after an initial strike in a sign of the potential political pitfalls and widespread public skittishness over even a limited retaliatory...

Now, with the United States appearing close to launching a retaliatory attack for Syrian President Bashar Assad’s alleged use of nerve gas last week, defense and diplomatic analysts are cautioning that the expected “surgical” strike will likely be symbolic and fall far short...

U.S. officials on Sunday called Syria’s decision to allow a U.N. team to investigate the site of a purported chemical attack “too late to be credible,” signaling that the Obama administration was leaning toward a military intervention in the two-year-old civil war.

Jim DeMint is back in a familiar role  challenging other Republicans to put conservative principles over political costs, and not particularly caring how many friends or allies he offends along the way.